The Traveling Circle

Right after our trip to Dubuque, Brian, the girls, and I headed out on a little traveling circle that involved visits in Wisconsin with both my grandparents and my aunt and uncle in Wausau, a brief stop at my brother's in Minnetonka before a wedding north of the Cities, followed by an afternoon/evening at my parents' house (they had watched the girls for us overnight), and completed with an evening trip home to Decorah.  It was a very full, quick trip (Thursday - Sunday), but I'm very glad we did it as it was great to see everyone!

Here was our timeline...with, unfortunately, only a few pictures as I didn't do a very good job of getting my camera out.

Thursday evening / Friday morning:  Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Hanz!  The girls did well on the car-ride over (although Grace's "When are we going to be there?" question did get rather annoying), and were excited to get out of the car.  They warmed up quickly, and especially enjoyed getting to meet Uncle Lyle and his convertible!  Brian, Grace, and my grandpa walked down to Lyle's, and while Brian went for a little jaunt with Lyle, Grace walked back with my grandpa.  He reported that she talked the entire time!  :) Liv and I took a ride too, and Liv couldn't get enough of the loud engine and the wind blowing in her hair.  My grandpa and Olivia also discussed plans for a joint 6 and 90-year old birthday party next year. Sounds excellent! Guess she was in the mood to show her adventurous self!  Friday morning, while Brian, my uncle Bob, and my grandpa Roiger went golfing, the girls and I headed back over to extend our visit (we had stayed overnight at Bob and Michelle's).  We enjoyed some delicious pancakes (Grace ate four!) and good conversation!

This picture of Grace scares me already!

The rest of Friday:  After breakfast at the Hanz's, we headed to the Roiger's for lunch - I don't think we were ever hungry on this trip!  It was great to be there and get to tour my grandma's flower garden and my grandpa's vegetable garden.  Once early afternoon hit, the girls were pretty tired, so we headed back to Bob and Michelle's for a nap - myself included.  Then, we hit up the fair where Olivia continued to be adventurous loving the medium-sized roller coaster and the tilt-a-whirl especially while Grace cried about the carousel but loved the cars that pretty much bored Olivia and Evan out of their minds!  :)  We'll keep working on her! In the evening, my grandma and grandpa Roiger came over for a delicious steak dinner accompanied by fresh vegetables from the garden.

Saturday:  We headed out pretty early arriving at Nathan's around noon.  The girls crashed for a good chunk in the car which was good because they spent the day at a climbing gym and pool before heading to Northfield with my mom and Mark (Thyme was camping with a church group).  We made our way to our hotel, attended the wedding, and then enjoyed a fun reception with a fabulous live band.

Sunday:  We got to sleep in!  However, we were still in Northfield by noon, so our days of truly "sleeping in" are apparently over.  My mom was already in the works of taking the girls swimming, so I headed down to Medford to do some baby shopping!  The girls were sleeping when I got back which gave my mom and me some nice chit-chat time.  We stayed for another tasty dinner before leaving in time to get back to Decorah by nine.

Quite the four days, I would say!